Living

Western Montanans have been living with climate change for years, including longer droughts, worsening wildfires and dwindling snowpacks. But they'll get a new perspective on global warming when a 40-print photo exhibit opens Thursday at the Roxy Theater in Missoula. The exhibit, which includes images of the grizzly bear, wolverine, moose and other species native to western Montana, is titled “Irreplaceable: Wildlife in a Warming World.”

By JOHN CRAMER of the Missoulian

ALBERTON - About a year ago, Rick Sween was watching a History Channel program about warriors who made cannons out of logs centuries ago.

He thought: Hell, if they did it, I can do it.

So, he did.

“KA-CHOONK!”

That’s the sound coming out of the homemade cannon, along with a cloud of gray smoke and the frozen water bottle that serves as his cannonball.

By JAMIE KELLY of the Missoulian

Watch a video of the Clark Fork River Market.

Salmon to the left of us, lagers to the right.

And here we were, stuck in the middle of the Clark Fork River Market and the Garden City Brewfest on a glorious spring day.

It was a Missoula party, as only Missoulians can throw it.

By MICHAEL MOORE of the Missoulian

Spring runoff still haunts her.

As water in the thin creek out back starts to rise, the dread rises with it.

Marti Johnson's mind tumbles back through time, through the years of tears, the years of hard-earned joy. It comes to rest 33 years ago, on the first day of summer 1975.

Marti, whose last name then was Sorenson, is in the backyard of the family's home on Miller Creek. Her two sons, Lane and Stevie, are playing hide-and-seek around a shed, running through the tall grass, laughing.

“Come join the peace amoeba,” sophomore Joey Boid yelled to a few other students as the march moved across Brooks Street. He was not at Hellgate last year to take part in the first march, but said he had a lot of friends who did. Freshman Kailin Rine didn't skip class, but joined the march as soon as the lunch period started. She spent much of the first few blocks holding the front edge of a long “Mission Accomplished?” banner.

By BETSY COHEN of the Missoulian

A three-day suspension from the University of Montana: That's the consequence for seven of the eight UM students who staged a sit-in protest in the Office of the President earlier this month.

On Tuesday, seven of the student protesters who were arrested on April 16 for trespassing and disorderly conduct met with UM Dean of Students Charles Couture to determine what their punishment would be for violating the school's Student Conduct Code.

By ROB CHANEY of the Missoulian

Click here to watch the video of a language session

ARLEE - In a language immersion school, every object has a label to remind students how to describe the world around them.

So in a sense, the expansion project going on at Nkwusm Salish Language Immersion School here is adding to its dictionary. From a single classroom and hallway kitchen six years ago, Nkwusm now is filling a former bowling alley with white boards, desks, student art and recording equipment.

By TRISTAN SCOTT of the Missoulian

Watch a video of woodsmen - and women - at work

All manner of woodfolk gathered Saturday to cap off a week of logging sports that featured lumber Jacks and Jills shimmying up 50-foot poles and splitting bull's eyes with flying axes.

Over the last week, the University of Montana's Woodsman Team hosted the regional Association of Western Forestry Clubs Conclave in and around Missoula, segments of which aired on ESPNU, which specializes in college sports.

It was a serious message, delivered with a lighthearted touch - so it was hard not to laugh and join the cheering lunch crowd when the Grizzly football team and other brazen men from the University of Montana stepped into women's high-heel shoes and strutted around the University Center on Wednesday to protest violence against women. The men marched to stop rape, sexual assault and gender violence, but first got a few pointers on walking in heels from Tori Wanty, a UM student who happens to be Miss Montana USA.

By KEILA SZPALLER of the Missoulian

Sometimes, a big loss in a community reveals something precious in it, too.

Donald Papke first shuffled up the steps of the Poverello Center some three weeks ago. The Vietnam veteran was thin and small and frail. But he wore big sunglasses, and inside his small frame, he packed big humor, too.

Vinny Wisniewski checked him into the Pov, Papke and his fancy walker. Then, in the beginning, Wisniewski learned Papke had a bullet lodged in his back, too close to his spine to operate. And maybe, he even had cancer.